Those Ugly Tan Lines

Title: Those ugly Tan Lines!

TEXT: 1Cor. 9:1-14 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas ? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8 Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 13 Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

INTRODUCTION:

1.) Without Question this passage is talking about ministerial remuneration. (v. 14)

2.) Finance is an area that we must take seriously, realizing there is a different standard for God’s people than that of the world.... but that is another sermon

3.) This morning notice instead, the impact What you do-- has on Who you are.

4.) Maybe I am stereotyping, but what you do seems to mold who you are.

5.) "They who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar,"

a. Paul takes this statement straight from Levitical Law:

b. Lev. 6:16, 26 Aaron and his sons shall eat the rest of it, but it is to be eaten without yeast in a holy place; they are to eat it in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. 26 The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.

6.) According to the law of Moses the priest who ministered at the altar,

received his living from the altar.

7.) His whole life was so wrapped up in the altar and its significance

that it came to modify who he was.

8.) ILLISTRATIONS:

a. No one talks like Preachers except Preachers

b. No one writes like Doctors except Doctors

9.) A Bartender, “ministering at his altar,” he also partakes of the nature of his worship. You will not find many “Tea-tolling” Bartenders.

10.) Priests of Moloch, casting children into fire, become through the frequency of this awful service so hardened to the sight of suffering children that they see a child on an altar like we see a burger on a grill.

• (There is your answer, as to “how an abortionist can do what he/she does?”)

MAIN POINT: What you DO has profound impact on who you ARE.

I. What a man does affects what he becomes.

A. Everyone’s Occupation has an affect his or her character.

1. You can pull them out of a crowd:

a. Farmers.... “Tan Line” -

b. The Mechanics “Hands”

2. It is all because the altar at which we serve puts its impression upon us.

B. The recreations in which we indulge affects what we become. . . even more!

1. Occupation is often thrust upon people,

2. but his leisure hours we choose

C. APPLICATION: Our voluntary acts affect us for more than our surroundings.

1. I do not think I am over stating it when I say, "What You do effects Eternal Destiny."

2. The same man who wrote “Salvation is a Free Gift...” Rom 6:23 wrote

3. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Phil. 2:12